You know what! I really don't want something flying over my back yard taking pictures! When my wife and I are getting into the hot tub sans bathing suits I suspect that you really don't want to see that either!
OK, deliver to the front door - no problem, but if you miss your target then I might have to borrow Jabear's shotgun.
Why do I feel more like a fossil every day? Don't answer - stupid question. Being senile and unaware of my surroundings seems to get more attractive every day!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Dave - you are not alone!
Where is your friendly bank teller, with whom you used to chat while getting your cash? Where is the nice mailman, delivering your mail while exchanging a little neighborhood gossip? Where is your friendly gas station attendant, cleaning the windshield of your car while filling `er up?. Where is your friendly streetcar conductor, telling you in time when to leave the train?
The list will get endless. What I don´t understand is, that it seems to be better for our society to have millions of unemployed, but that´s getting into politics, so I better keep my mouth shut!
Just a friendly non threatening or a controversial observation meant in good humor, but because both Germany & Canada use the metric system, the heading should perhaps have included kilometers rather than miles?
Dusty.
No worries Dusty. My concerns were directed more towards Mr. Kyle who seemed to get a bit defensive at my attempt to have some fun. Maybe he thought the word "us" meant the U.S. instead of "us" (as in you and me). Another failure of the our youth to understand the job of punctuation in writing?
As far as a peeing contest goes, it was decided not to include it in the Olympic's as it was determined that the same country would win the gold every year. To avoid anymore trouble I won't name the country, but anyone that has been to Oktoberfest knows the in's and out's of what I'm talking about.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Dusty Solo Just a friendly non threatening or a controversial observation meant in good humor, but because both Germany & Canada use the metric system, the heading should perhaps have included kilometers rather than miles?
Dusty, people that use the metric system (at least in my experience) can use the imperial system just as easily. Besides there are all those great old songs that have the word "miles" in them. Can you imagine Cat using the word kilometre's in this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNId6M4SSNk
I wonder if Cat is Lion's favourite musician?
hon30critterWhen my wife and I are getting into the hot tub sans bathing suits
Hey! HEy! HEY! It is still breakfast time out here on the West coast and I am trying to eat! Do you mind!
Miles is the one that works for me, BATMAN. Imagine the song by the 60's group, The Byrds, "Eight Miles High" In metric that would be, "12.8748km High" - it's just not the same really.
Dusty
hon30critter You know what! I really don't want something flying over my back yard taking pictures! When my wife and I are getting into the hot tub sans bathing suits I suspect that you really don't want to see that either! OK, deliver to the front door - no problem, but if you miss your target then I might have to borrow Jabear's shotgun. Why do I feel more like a fossil every day? Don't answer - stupid question. Being senile and unaware of my surroundings seems to get more attractive every day! Dave
I really don't want anything flying over me taking pictures, period. Unless I control who sees the pictures and how and where they are stored.
Well, your probably already getting your photo taken, at stop lights, by satellite, google... A bit disturbing perhaps.
The issue of automation and the elimination of labor continues (remember when looms were threatening the weavers?). I think in the future there is going to need to be a universal dividend paid to everyone because robots will be doing more and more of the work. Otherwise nobody will be able to buy the products the robots make (and deliver LOL).
I wonder, maybe a person would opt in for drone delivery? Set up a little drop zone area with a readable bar code target...
I also wonder, how much wind or weather would be ground the drones. Drone crashes due to bad weather...
The German Model Railroad Products manufacturers, still produce close to 100% of their respective goods in the Republic of Germany.
Can not say the same for the vast majority of the U.S. based companies though!!!
Kyle Dusty Solo "Always" ahead of us, BATMAN? Dusty If we want to discuss this, let's look back in history. The US had the first: Assembly lines, and first mass produced car Ford Model T First airplane First jumbo aircraft 747 (which a lot lasted the British/French Concord) First and ONLY 5th generation fighter jet (F22 Raptor) A whole lot more
Dusty Solo "Always" ahead of us, BATMAN? Dusty
"Always" ahead of us, BATMAN?
If we want to discuss this, let's look back in history.
The US had the first:
First jumbo aircraft 747 (which a lot lasted the British/French Concord)
Not true. The Messerschmitt 323 Gigant preceded the 747 by a quarter century:
http://tinyurl.com/od9btcu
Then there was the Dornier Do X which preceded the Me 323 by more than a decade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_X
How about the Soviet Tuplev ANT-20, a 1930's aircraft with a wingspan approximating that of a modern 747? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_ANT-20
Not leaving our own country out, there was the Douglas XB-19, first flown in mid 1941. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_XB-19
And of course, there was the B-36, a rather larrge aircraft with a 230' wingspan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker
The Martin Mars had a 200 foot winglspan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_JRM_Mars
Not to mention the Hughes "Spruce Goose" with a wingspan longer than a football field as well as the longest wingspan of any aircraft ever built: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules
The Brits had the Saunders Roe 'Princess", no slouch in the size department: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_Princess
Andre
Your posts, Andrea mostly contain interesting facts & things to ponder & to learn from. This latest offering is no exception.
As an enthusiastic modeler of flying boats & transport aircraft of the piston era I discovered some interesting information in your post
Interesting as it is the point you make is about a size & era comparison, However, I beleive the Boeing 747 Jumbo influenced passenger transport to such a dramatic extent that its influence on civilian aviation has been profound & far reaching.
The British & their French partners in the Concord beleived speed was the direction passenger aviation would take - they just plain got it wrong. Exclusivity for the pampered & well off who could afford the huge cost of flying on the very limited route network seviced by both BOAC/BA & Air France, the only carriers who persevered with the Concord, was a serious & costly misscalculation.The US carrier Braniff flew a couple of them out of Dallas/Fort Worth until they came to their senses. While the people at Boeing new that for the future, passenger air travel would be in a kind of aviation mass transport at an affordable price That is the enduring influence & legacy of the 747.
But that is A/C & this forum is about modeling trains & railroads so I had better clam up about machines that fly.
I did enjoy reading your post - I just wanted to tell you that.
Dusty SoloBut that is A/C & this forum is about modeling trains & railroads so I had better clam up about machines that fly.
Cheers, the Bear. .
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Perhaps I should just fade off from this post, but Bear, you have thrown down a challenge & I have without shame swallowed the bait.
Before making some of those ill informed asscetions with accompanying racial epithets it
may have been prudent to have done some digging around for some facts. But you are in luck here because I can help you out in that regard.
Fact: the US was not behind the eight ball regarding supersonic passenger air transport. As early as the mid 1950's work had begun at Boeing on an SST. This was to attract federal funding for further developement. Concord was at this stage much latter in 1962. Locheed also planned to develop an SST & the Russians entered supersonic flight with the Tupelov
a Concord look-a-like.
Boeings design was far larger than the Concord with double the seating capacity - 270 seats.
What killed off the US SST projects was in fact that, apart from some design difficulties surrounding the swept wing, it was generally accepted in Seattle & Washington that a world filled with sonic booms would not be tolerated by American citizens on the ground. This proved to be true when the people of NY & NJ became quite upset as the Concord happily went about its business smashing glass windows as it went. There was also concern over the effect SST would have on the ozone layer. This was at a time of course when governments & industry cared about such things.
Anyway, have some fun & do a google search - its an inexpensive way to get an education.
Oh, btw, I am from the south so not really a "Yank" as you so delicately put it
Dusty SoloPerhaps I should just fade off from this post, but Bear, you have thrown down a challenge & I have without shame swallowed the bait.
Alas my bluff has been well and truly called , and you had the good grace not to rub my nose in it by not mentioning the SR71, which while not a passenger aircraft of course, did prove that the US could build a really fast aircraft.
I shall retire from the field bowed but only slightly broken.
Cheers, the Bear.
Hi all
Are the germans realy that far ahead of us.
Or is it realy a case of different requirements.
Should I be placing an illegal order for pom pom's to shoot down all these strange new air craft that it seems are going to be buzzing around over my tiny patch of the world the one peice that is my domain and castle.
regards John
The German co. Marklin was the first to offer different track gauges for model trains. Before that each company had one gauge that they used, usually different from other company's gauges. Marklin numberbed them 1-2-3-4 with No.1 gauge (today's "G gauge") being the smallest. When they developed a smaller size it was called 0 (zero) gauge, when was often pronounced like the letter O rather than the number 0 - "O gauge". Of course HO is "Half O" so Marklin affected that size also. Many years later, they introduced Z scale/gauge also.
Well, one of my relatives invented the wheel, thus starting the transportation industry. Another member of my family discovered fire thus making huge progress in the energy sector, allowing all of you other people to have much easier, more comfortable lives. And don't get me started on the agricultural industry. If an earlier ancester of mine didn't have a craving for apple's, your diet's would be much more limited to this day.
So you see, if it hadn't been for my family, you would all be running around naked hiding under a tree. Oh ya, an early relative of mine started the clothing industry as well.